This chapter explores the policy levers that the Government of Lebanon can use in its governance of the public sector digital transformation. The OECD E-Leaders Governance Handbook describes "policy levers as tools that can be used by governments as a means of action in specific sectors to achieve system-wide change. Digital government policy levers are also fundamental for promoting the use of crucial enablers across the administration. To sustain sound digital government, the effective adoption of these critical enablers is one of the essential challenges faced by governments of OECD member and non-member countries. By actively promoting the adoption of the enablers through the different policy levers, governments are reinforcing the implementation capacity of their digital government policies' delivery and adoption” (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
Digital Government in Lebanon
Chapter 4. Policy levers
The role of policy levers in the governance of digital government
Effective governance structures include specific scopes, functions and duties in the creation, management, execution and evaluation of digital government initiatives. Public sector organisations responsible for digital transformation provide consultative and decision-making duties. Leading institutions have at their disposal soft and hard policy levers to ensure successful execution of the agenda – such as supervision and guidance for the former, and decision-making authority and compulsory review of initiatives for the latter. A review of government structures by the OECD reveals that there is no single one-size-fits-all model. Furthermore, the implementation effectiveness of the governance system is mainly relational, dependent on the variety of factors within the general institutional framework of the region. Policy tools to support policy co-ordination, implementation, compliance and enforcement should be considered to ensure that they can be successful instruments of the digital transition of the public sector (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
The critical policy levers for the successful and sustainable governance of digital governments are a solid national digital government policy strategy and plan, a designated governing body and effective leadership and enforcement capacity. Governments are encouraged to follow the creation of a digital governance framework, the use of business cases, project management frameworks, guidelines or criteria for ICT commissioning and investment thresholds, to drive effective delivery through sectors and levels of the public sector. These are crucial artefacts in guiding policy action in work-streams that are constantly and rapidly evolving. Developing analytical tools or policy mechanisms to track new programmes or initiatives enable policy makers to co-ordinate political action and make cost-benefit analyses of the effectiveness of public investment. It is also a systematic way of ensuring the performance, efficacy and alignment of procurement processes, and of the gaps or overlaps that may emerge from agency-driven approaches (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
Based on the E-Leaders Task Force on Governance inputs and the OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies (OECD, 2014[2]), the dimensions and sub-dimensions within the policy levers facet are suggested as instruments that enable better and more sustainable design and implementation of digital government policies and agendas (see Figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1. Digital government policy levers
Source: (OECD, forthcoming[1]) OECD E-Leaders Governance Handbook.
The planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of digital government policies, based on an appropriate action plan and investment plan, is key to success in driving the digital transformation of the public sector. Lebanon's willingness to use digital technologies to modernise the country's public sector and facilitate a more equitable distribution of growth results must rely heavily on its operational capacity to identify, schedule, execute and track ICT projects to ensure adequate returns on investments. Weak prioritisation and preparation of ICT programmes have led to significant delays. Furthermore, ICT project management has become highly sophisticated in terms of expenditure scale, number of partners participating, resource strategy processes, variety of technical choices and overall project management techniques involving more advanced and interdisciplinary skills. Creating these skills is a significant challenge for sub-national governments dealing with limited resources like the case of Lebanon. Despite significant benefits, due to their existence, they may turn into substantial transaction costs to maintain successful alignment and co-ordinated opportunities and actions.
The following segments will look at critical areas for capacity building to establish a digital government and data-driven public sector, namely: 1) strategy; 2) management tools; 3) financial measures and mechanisms; 4) regulations.
Dimension 1. Strategy
A digital government and governance strategy, collaborative approaches to its construction, development, implementation and monitoring are crucial to a robust and sustainable digital transformation of the public sector. Such a strategy can align goals, objectives and initiatives, and is fundamental in building consensus and contributing to the necessary cross-government co-ordination for efficient and effective implementation. The efficient, cohesive, organised, and consistent execution of these policies is one of the policy challenges currently facing OECD member and non-member states. Capacity to switch from the concept of goals and priorities envisaged in the strategy to its successful execution encourages policy makers to create comprehensive action plans that can help co-ordinate the required policy intervention and collective actions through industries and levels of government (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
A one-size-fits-all approach is not applicable because there are advantages and challenges in having an autonomous or embedded digital transformation strategy. An autonomous strategy can have greater political and institutional relevance for the country to advance towards a higher digital maturity of its public sector. At the same time, an autonomous strategy may tend towards a top-down approach in the execution and implementation process if the strategy is not thoughtfully linked to policy strategies that cover other sectors. In this context, the Government of Lebanon is aware of the need to co-ordinate and organise a digital transformation strategy among the various government agencies, while concurrently ensuring its autonomy and strength for continuance.
The co-ordination and collaboration of organisations and agencies in the public sector in the design of the digital transformation strategy is also fundamental for ensuring that expectations from the whole ecosystem of stakeholders are accounted for and that the government can align and meet their needs comprehensively. With the involvement of various stakeholders in the design and post-implementation assessment of the strategy, it is possible to create an open and inclusive consensus among both public and private actors. This is critical to sustaining the digital government policy throughout its lifecycle and despite potential political, economic and social instability. It is also important to establish a system of accountability and trust between citizens and public sector institutions. The level of openness, transparency and inclusiveness of the strategy's design, development and monitoring process will indicate how willing stakeholders are collectively to support the strategy's implementation process.
The process of implementing a good digital transformation strategy also requires governments to develop comprehensive action plans. Lebanon’s action plan presents strategic objectives that accompany the digital transformation draft strategy, a brief roadmap featuring different stages to be accomplished from establishing a governance structure to forming an implementation task force and developing specific plans and teams with defined roles and responsibilities – before pre-requisite and priority programmes and solutions can be executed. There will also be monitoring and evaluation mechanisms with key performance indicators (KPIs). In such as case, the Government of Lebanon is aware of what an action plan should contain and that it should guarantee the continued development of a robust, coherent, sustainable action plan that is built on top of strong institutional models. Each programme and solution that has been highlighted as a pre-requisite and priority must be accompanied by actionable measures and achievable roadmaps. Particular attention must be paid to digital key enablers as they are the “building blocks” on which digital services can be developed and innovated quickly. In Portugal, for instance, digital key enablers such as the digital identity, the interoperability platform, the single digital gateway and public e-procurement were among the first cross-sector digital projects and they still serve as major driving forces for digital transformation of the public sector, economy and society today, while still adapting to new contexts, technologies and trends.
The plan of action should be able to show the process of implementation of the digital transformation strategy, based on proper management processes, an appropriate sharing of roles within public sector organisations and the participation of actors from the digital government community (private sector, academia and civil society). It involves a structure of the necessary policy action and public efforts across sectors and levels of government. A precise definition of duties and responsibilities is key to maintaining effective policy enforcement. Since efficient implementation also depends on dynamic contexts and changing variables, especially when the digital transformation is considered to be ongoing, agility in the planning phase can be decisive in ensuring that the action plan is permanently adapted to the contextual reality it is intended to apply. Agile project management of the action plan is expected based on effective tracking processes and periodic revisions to the steps and deadlines for execution. The ability of policy makers to be flexible in the implementation of the action plan will decide its lasting importance, preventing the obsolescence of this crucial policy mechanism.
The relation of digital government strategies with broader reform agendas is also a fundamental dimension of analysis to understand their relevance and sustainability. The capacity of governments to establish strong links and bridges between their digital government strategy and other reform agendas demonstrates their level of maturity in understanding the digital transformation underway. For sound policy development, the OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies underlines that “digital government strategies need to become firmly embedded in mainstream modernisation policies” (OECD, 2014[2]). This will promote improved co-ordination and synergies but will also allow relevant stakeholder outside of government to be included and feel ownership for the outcomes of major policy reforms.
Lebanon has produced a hybrid embedded strategy in a single document the country’s main goals and priorities, as the digital government priorities are part of the CEDRE agreement plans and concern broader plans (digital economy and social strategy, administrative simplification strategy). A wide variety of actors in the public administration are meant to co-operate in the preparation and execution of digital development programmes (Oueidat, 2018[3]).
Finally, it is key to further develop proper monitoring and impact assessment mechanisms, namely through KPIs. Governments need to be able to properly monitor the implementation and performance of the strategies and action plans. This will provide information and intelligence for the smarter design of new policies, and the improvement of existing ones. A sound monitoring capacity is also integral to enabling transparency through the policy design and implementation process and instilling trust in the public sector by citizens and the private sector. Furthermore, open monitoring mechanisms can help to boost accountability and commitment of the stakeholders. A robust framework for the measurement of outputs, outcomes and impacts of the digital government strategy shows the level of maturity of the public sector in adopting transparent, accountable and evidence-based policymaking approaches. Finally, the monitoring and impact assessment tools are best to be employed in the context of agile project management. It should also involve a dynamic review of the project objectives, priorities and actions in line with the changing context.
The Government of Lebanon has expressed its desire to improve the management of its performance, transparency and efficiency in the digital transformation. It has devised a comprehensive performance management programme where the public administration is to measure performance for improvement and use the measurements for performance budgeting and strategic planning. One challenge in this area is the poor access to and sharing of operational information and financial data due to the units still functioning in silos and the presence of inconsistency among them. The Access to Information Law (Number 28) was adopted in 2017 but it has not been effectively implemented until 2019, where OMSAR began developing a National Action Plan with United Nations Development Programme and the OECD. The implementation process involves consultation with civil society organisations, participation in awareness raising activities, training for public information officers and development of guides for citizens on the law. A digital government that has integrated adequate access to shared data and a culture of openness will be the first milestone, which would then open doors to the standardisation of performance data, performance evaluation, and the production of data-driven insights to improve performance over time.
Under the Organisational Performance Inspection Programme, OMSAR and the Central Inspection (CI) have developed a comprehensive set of generic and sectoral KPIs for its ministries and public agencies, under six priority key performance areas (KPAs): citizen centricity; business centricity; digital governments solutions and applications; digital infrastructure; digital transformation policies and legal framework; digital transformation ethics, norms and standards. Further to this, additional KPIs will be defined after the strategy and implementation plan are approved by the Council of Ministers. These efforts dedicated to the design and development of these robust monitoring and impact assessment programmes will ensure that the digital government strategies and action plans being implemented can lead towards the attainment of the correct outputs, outcomes and impacts.
Dimension 2. Management tools
Business case methodologies can be crucial in ensuring the success of the digital transformation of the public sector, their alignment with key priority objectives and the capacity of the public sector to take corrective measures and show strategic vision and agility needed to deliver results according to the expectations. They help prepare ICT projects and identify the necessary use of project management resources and expertise. The lack of such practices makes it difficult to formulate strong value propositions make a case to justify IT investments, and to show their beneficial results for the public administration, people and businesses, and thus secure the political commitment and public support. Agile ICT procurement approaches are important in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of activities by the government and public sector in the face of limited resources and budgets. An evolution from an ICT procurement approach focused on the technology to an ICT commissioning culture where providers are involved earlier in the commissioning process through agile mechanisms and proper feedback loops is fundamental to deliver value and realise benefits in the digital age.
ICT investments have become highly demanding in terms of expenditure scale, stakeholder participation and technical readiness. The use of strong business cases, covered by Principle 9 of the OECD Recommendation is one of the policy processes for ICT ventures which defines the importance or gain of the initiative and clarifies the compatibility of the technology with the strategic objectives of the enterprise and the public sector more generally (OECD, 2014[2]). Clear business scenarios help to make investment decisions focused on a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and help determine project threats early on, helping project managers to establish effective risk management plans.
Denmark, for example, has significantly improved the ICT project governance and execution through the creation of structured business cases and ICT project management frameworks, the use of which is compulsory across the government for projects with a budget of more than DKK 10 million. The Danish approach encourages tracking of the achievement of the intended gains and the achievement of the pre-established goals. Based on the objectives set by the business case, the ICT project management structure allows to monitor and assess implementation, identify deficiencies and make timely adjustments to the implementation of the project. Due to the various monitoring processes of the management cycle, these instruments are a significant source of data, helping the public sector organisation in charge to recognise performance factors and shortcomings in government ICT programmes, while continually improving the public sector's capacity to handle initiatives that are becoming more complicated. New Zealand has also implemented a "Better Business Case (BBC) Methodology" to ensure smarter investments (see Box 4.1).
Box 4.1. New Zealand’s Better Business Cases (BBC) methodology
The primary objective of the BBC is to enable smart investment decisions for public value. If applied appropriately BBC can also help to: •reduce the costs of developing business cases •reduce the time it takes to develop business cases •meet recognised good practice A business case is the vehicle to demonstrate that a proposed investment is strategically aligned, represents value for money, and is achievable. A business case turns an idea (think) into a proposal (plan). It enables decision-makers to invest with confidence, knowing that they have the best information available at a point in time. It is also a reference point during the “do” phase to support delivery and used in the review phase to determine whether the benefits in the business case were realised. For significant projects, there are two key stages in the evolution of a project business case: the indicative business case and the detailed business case. For smaller and/or lower-risk investments, typically a single-stage business case (which combines the indicative and detailed business cases) is used.
Source: (The Treasury, 2020[4]) “Better Business Case (BBC)”, https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/state-sector-leadership/investment-management/better-business-cases-bbc.
The Government of Lebanon may benefit from the use of such policy levers at the central administration level and the creation of use cases, models and guidelines promoting their use at different levels of government. Therefore, the use of business cases can help to develop main project metrics that can be tracked. The radical integration of these indicators into the governance of ICT initiatives in the public sector at all levels will help promote a culture based on performance and outcomes in the adoption of digital governance in Lebanon. These indicators will enable project managers to make immediate changes to project execution and help the more comprehensive government recognise the main factors of project successes and failures. In fact, by gathering these details, the public sector organisation in-charge of the Digital transformation will improve its capacity to track the execution of digital government policies continually. The value of these resources can be increased if they are complemented with models and instructions on ICT project management and instruction on the use of such materials presented to its most probable consumers.
Efforts to modernise the government in Lebanon would inevitably involve the development of the digital infrastructure and services, and the accompanying financing and investments required. New digital technologies, such as cloud computing, enable organisations to access services and infrastructure on demand, track their workload, promote co-operation between public bodies and facilitate the broad adoption of specific strategic solutions for the public administration. The efficiency gains facilitated by this technological advance make it particularly cost-effective relative to the construction and maintenance of a private data centre. Such technological approaches are encouraging new ways of collaboration and sharing of resources. This has prompted several governments around the world to transfer significant portions of their computing power, data management and access to services to publicly or privately managed clouds.
Nevertheless, these same innovations raise new challenges for which existing procurement systems are unable to provide answers frequently. These include threats of technical lock-in or possible breaches of data privacy and security. A more mature digital environment that defines the need to provide Lebanon's government at all levels with easy access to digital services and infrastructure, requires new decision-making tools that can take these new variables into account. As such, new approaches to procurement would allow policy makers and decision-makers to create cost-benefit analyses and assessments that help to address such uncertainties. For instance, if Lebanon decides to heavily invest in national data centres for public institutions, the choice should be made with careful consideration of the options currently available, including cloud computing, with its advantages and disadvantages.
The OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies’ Principle 11 recommends that to enhance ICT procurement efficiency in favour of the digital transformation of the government sector, states will buy technology based on existing infrastructure. These frameworks should enable a co-ordinated strategy that remains flexible enough to accommodate various types of ICT procurement and public-private partnerships and deployments. Nonetheless, this depends on the existence of some resources to help strategic decisions to prevent duplication of spending. Definitions of such resources provide searchable databases or archives containing all current ICT contracts and properties, or statistics on the past performance of ICT companies. Nevertheless, the Lebanese bodies currently lack similar tools. The several digital government stakeholders interviewed during the OECD fact-finding mission to Beirut in June 2019 recognised other weaknesses such as lacking budgets for sustainability and recurring costs, and post-release updates, further developments, maintenance and enhancements for efficient procurement and funding. To counter this, the Government of Lebanon could prioritise the development of an appropriate legal and policy approach for ICT investments. It should also adopt procurement laws that are conducive to public e-procurement across its public sector and economy.
Dimension 3. Financial measures and mechanisms
Economic incentives are crucial to promote ICT projects and initiatives and ensure an effective digital transformation of the public sector. These financial measures and mechanisms include grants, subsidies, immediate and indirect financing and public-private partnerships that the government can count on. Investment plans can facilitate the successful execution of the draft digital government strategy through the proper identification and distribution of financial resources to the public sector agencies involved. Investment plans are also essential tools for cost-benefit analysis, helping policy makers and other partners to track better investments and the interest that they will achieve. The capacities and capabilities necessary for a sound digital government policy involve strong budgeting capacities, co-funding mechanisms and fiscal measures to support ICT procurement and commissioning.
A digital transformation strategy presents a useful means for planning and managing financing and investments in deploying digital technology across the government and the public sector. The directions set by the strategy will condition the types of projects that would be funded and prioritised. A certain degree of allowance is needful in this context for efficient and flexible resource allocation according to changing needs and supply of ICTs. When it comes to the project selection criteria and monitoring, the Government of Lebanon has the requirement for the main contracting authority, the beneficiary and the contractor to demonstrate the ability to commit human and financial resources during and post-project implementation. Financial audits are to be conducted by the Digital Transformation Steering Committee (DEDTSC) to ensure that projects are in line with budgets. A key performance sub-area under digital transformation ethics, norms and standards (S-KPA 6.4) covers the establishment of financial management and electronic reporting procedures for digital transformation projects. This is a positive measure in the provision of ICT project investment guidelines and norms to steer change. The Government of Lebanon should consider setting more comprehensive targets and guidelines detailing financial measures and mechanisms to adequately address various mandates and steps of the digital transformation draft strategy and provide the public sector innovators with the right incentives and resources. In the consideration of ICT projects, the digitalisation of non-ICT sectors also plays an important role and should not be neglected, as it has become increasingly clear that digitalisation can generate a competitive advantage across all sectors.
Further areas for development include budgeting, budget thresholds, co-funding mechanisms and fiscal measures. Under the Government of Lebanon's implementation roadmap, specific implementation plans will be undertaken as the third stage after the establishment of the governance structure and the formation of the implementation task force. The project implementation plan will include operating budgets, funding and risk management to ensure the sustainability of the operations. OMSAR already recognises that project planning and budget preparation are the most crucial steps for the success of the digital transformation. It highlights that sustainability funding needs to account for capital investment in ICTs, operational running costs, preventive maintenance and periodic service costs, and human resources and skills development costs. It also underlines that is key for the budget to have planned receipts and expenditures.
The capacity to influence budgetary priorities in a country and how financial resources are distributed in the public sector is important in determining the success of policy implementation. Political influence, the capacity of aligning specific objectives with broader national policy agenda and technical expertise are also fundamental determinants of a successful policy process. OMSAR and the Lebanese Digital Agency should build on such a cross-cutting role that can reinforce the institutional influence, mandate and stakeholder support in the ecosystem for a successful digital transformation of the public sector.
Budget thresholds serve as another important policy lever for pre-evaluation of investments in digital technologies, greater alignment across the administration, better coherence and sustainability of the investments made, and avoiding gaps and overlap in the investments. This mechanism will encourage a systems-thinking approach that promotes consistent public expenses across the administration, stimulate co-operation and build synergies across different bodies of the government. This is especially crucial for Lebanon, which needs to have streamlined, efficient and effective governance structures and processes that serve as a strong foundation for a data-driven, user-centric and agile system – one that responds to policy changes and continual adaptations despite uncertain contextual factors. In addition, budget thresholds also encourage transparency and accountability of investments and financial efforts, to the private sector, civil society and citizens.
On the one hand, oversight and control mechanisms like business cases, budget and budget thresholds enforce policy coherence. On the other hand, fiscal measures and financial incentives like co-funding are important in activating institutional wills, strengthening commitments and securing alignment positively. Co-funding mechanisms help to encourage participation, engagement and proactiveness in creating solutions – thereby having spill-over effects in innovation and entrepreneurship in both public and private sectors. Co-funding needs to be aligned strongly with existing digital government mechanisms and policies such that the initiatives and projects rolled out will fully benefit from financial support.
The aforementioned financial measures and mechanisms are critical success factors for effective, coherent and sustainable implementation in Lebanon. Building on the strong efforts and commitments underway to enhance the digital transformation of the public sector, the Lebanese government should prioritise the development of these policy levers in the new digital government framework for sound policy implementation capacity.
Dimension 4. Regulations
Laws and regulations have always been a critical component in public policy and can play a significant role in transforming markets, changing behaviour and removing barriers that impede progress. They need to be in place for digital change to be institutionalised and secured in the government and the public sector – a crucial part of ensuring new policies and processes are implemented and under compliance. Following Principle 12 of the OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies, policy makers are required to "ensure that general and sector-specific legal and regulatory frameworks allow digital opportunities digital opportunities to be seized" namely by "reviewing them as appropriate".
Because of the cross-cutting effect of digital transition in markets, communities and governments, multiple laws and regulations need to be built from the outset or better revised to allow and facilitate digital reform. The diversity of trends and complexity of digital systems requires a correspondingly sophisticated legal and regulatory digital framework. Furthermore, the approach and model for these frameworks are dependent on individual legal and regulatory environments and institutional cultures.
A few legal and regulatory building blocks should nonetheless still be present for a sound institutionalisation of the digital transformation (see Figure 4.2). Some domains to be highlighted in line with Lebanon's digital areas of development are the reinforcement of digital rights of citizens and businesses, the protection of personal data and cyber security.
Figure 4.2. Legal and regulatory framework for institutionalising the digital transformation
Source: (OECD, 2019[5]), Digital Government Review of Panama: Enhancing the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector, https://doi.org/10.1787/615a4180-en.
Lebanon's digital transition will involve reviews and modifications of the legal frameworks as well as new legislations, decisions and decrees. The Government of Lebanon has identified overregulation and excessive bureaucracy at one end and low-enforcement and corruption as the other challenges. To overcome this, the government will need to design purposeful regulation targeting digital technologies that improve agility, performance, innovation, efficiency, transparency and accountability. Overregulation of administrative procedures should also be reduced using ICT and digital technologies, by ridding of paperwork and streamlining processes. Another stage in this dimension that could pose a challenge in Lebanon are the bureaucratic and political hurdles of the design and endorsement of laws and regulations. To change this, the government needs to encourage a significant change in mindset and culture to make civil servants responsible and accountable through programmes and incentives. At the same time, as mentioned above (in Chapter 2 on Contextual Factors), beyond the need of an updated legal and regulatory framework, enhancing the digital transformation of the public sector is not a static process, requiring an agile, collaborative and experimental culture across the administration that can go beyond legalistic approaches.
Adopting more participatory approaches, to involving the private sector and civil society in the design of regulations and rules covering the aforementioned digital areas, especially those that concern citizens and businesses directly, is another approach to ensure that laws are institutionalised effectively. Frequent consultation and communication, in line with the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government, will increase the public sector openness and bring it closer to other stakeholders and allow faster recognition and adoption of regulations materially. OMSAR has identified civic engagement as a key pillar for the digital transformation of Lebanon. It recognises the importance of identifying all issues and problems from reliable stakeholders. It will also be important to secure alignment with the goals and objectives of the government's digital transformation draft strategy. In the governance of its digital transformation draft strategy that eventually makes it to new digital government policies, it is most critical for the Government of Lebanon to take an active and inclusive approach to understand its contextual factors, improving its institutional models and designing targeted and important policy levers engaging the whole ecosystem of stakeholders.
References
[5] OECD (2019), “Digital Government Review of Panama: Enhancing the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector”, OECD Digital Government Studies, https://doi.org/10.1787/615a4180-en.
[2] OECD (2014), Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0406.
[1] OECD (forthcoming), “OECD Digital Government Project: E-Leaders Governance Handbook”, E-Leaders Task Force on Governance.
[3] Oueidat, L. (2018), Report on National Digital Transformation Strategy of 2018.
[4] The Treasury (2020), Better Business Case (BBC) Information and services: State sector leadership: Investment management system, https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/state-sector-leadership/investment-management/better-business-cases-bbc.